


You Have to Destroy the Future to Save It

by Aurelyn



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Bakumatsu, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Dysfunctional Family, Feels, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Mild Language, Mild-Moderate OOC-ness, Mother Hen Himura Kenshin, Tags May Change, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-02-15 00:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2209146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurelyn/pseuds/Aurelyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenshin is fighting  Shishio for his life, and he is losing - badly. Saito is bleeding out and nearly dead, Sano already gone. He failed his friends, his teacher, the ragtag group that comes to mind when someone says family. So when he gets a shot to fix things, he jumps. Without thinking. As usual. </p><p>Except he isn't the only one dragged into this mess. Thrown back into the hell that is the Bakumatsu, one wrong move and everything will crumble into nothing. Will he be able to avert disaster? Or is fate real and the future set in stone?</p><p>-Ok, its been years, I have lost all motivation, and have also forgotten what the hell I was planning for this. I'll be leaving this as a oneshot, and it can be read as such, but I'm officially labelling it discontinued.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Have to Destroy the Future to Save It

**Author's Note:**

> Yo 
> 
> This is the first fic I've written in like a year and a half, and the first one that's actually public. I've discovered that time travel fics are really really awesome. And I haven't gotten over that stage yet, so suck it up princess. And so without further ado, allow me to inflict you with whatever the hell my brain manages to dredge up while I'm still in a creative mood. No, I probably won't update in a regular pattern. No, Kenshin is not getting into Kaoru's pants. Or Tomoe's. Or Sano's. Or anybody's. He's here so he doesn't have to see his loved ones die, not to ride them into the sunset. I don't know if you are ok with the idea that no one will be getting it on but frankly I don't care. You people need to get your heads out of the gutter. Happy reading, if you don't like it then don't read it. Advice, comments, and critiques that are RELEVANT TO THE PLOT OR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT are welcome. Have a nice day/night :)

[Kenshin]  
Kenshin groaned, cradling his head in familiar thin, strong hands. With a soft whine, he carefully sat up and tried to not fall over. Key word in that statement being try. Barely a moment passed before his face introduced itself to his knees (rather painfully) in a violent muscle spasm. Kami above, but he hadn’t felt this bad since…. since…. since the Bakamatsu. All of a sudden memories rushed back in an incoherent mess. 

He had been fighting Shishio and losing, maimed and injured and oh so tired. He had seen a gap in his defence, a break in that armour. The fiery rurouni had lunged for that space, the one hope of salvation, knowing without a doubt that the blow would land and it would be over it’s over it’s finally done-

Except it wasn’t. 

Making a mistake worthy of his early days as a baka deshi he failed to pay attention to his surroundings. Stumbling as his feet snagged on something –someone –Kenshin had watched in despair as that one chance slipped away as sure as he was heading towards to ground. Before he had had the time to get a limb under himself to stop his fall (he was just so tired) a line of fire wrote its way across his back in a lazy scrawl. Robbed of the air to scream at the pain, he just managed to make out that it was Saito he had tripped over. 

The Wolf of Mibu was still alive –but not for long, that treacherous little voice in the back of his head sneered. Kenshin decided that he didn’t like it after all and told it to shut up (though he conveyed the sentiment with words that weren’t so fit for polite company) before forcing his dimming gaze across the battleground once more. Saito barely breathing beneath his legs, and over there was Sano but of course he wasn’t moving he was deaddeaddead –his thoughts scattered as the rurouni tried desperately to think of something else aside from his friend before they seized on a whisper of movement –good, Aoshi had gotten out at least (he’d rather die than be responsible for taking him away from Misao) but then again he was going to die anyways and wasn’t that funny he’d survived the Bakamatsu and spent ten years running away from it only to be killed by its legacy- 

And then there was darkness. 

A hazy memory of something, no, someone standing over him in the Otherplace, asking him if he had any regrets.

“…I didn’t save them….I let them die….I couldn’t protect them….I was too soft….I wasted everything….They died because of me….I threw away their lives….I wasted my second chance…” 

“But would you waste a third?” 

“No.” The response left his lips without any conscious thought. A brief impression of a smile and then pain. Lots and lots of pain. Red pain and white pain and blue pain and black pain. There were even a few swirls of yellow mixed in. 

And then he woke up. 

In a room that had not existed since the Bakamatsu. 

Shit. 

[Saito]  
The last thing Saito remembered was that idiot Battousai tripping over him and screwing up any chance that someone who wasn’t the enemy was going to walk away from this mess. 

The next thing he remembered was waking up in a clearing with a slight tang of iron and sulphur and steel and –rot? –coating his throat every time he breathed in. The last time he remembered this concoction was the –oh no. 

He couldn’t have. 

Saito sat up, his sudden movement aborted when he felt an unusual weight on his scalp. Hand flying to the back of his head, he cursed through his teeth as it met a long tail of hair. The little shit. 

Next time he saw Battousai, the runt was dead. 

[Sano]  
Sano woke up to a familiar voice sending harsh, hissing curses flying through the air. The brunette raised an eyebrow in appreciation; they were pretty creative. Storing some of them for later use against Missy and Fox, he slowly blinked his eyes open. The sky was partially blocked by trees, but it was a nice day overall. 

A yawn quickly turned to a cough as he tried to get rid of a sharp taste clinging to the inside of his throat. The cursing stopped, though Sano ignored the perpetrator in favour of hacking and spitting to try and get rid of the sour taste that left him feeling as though he couldn’t quite breathe as deeply as he’d like. 

“There’s no point in that. The taste isn’t going anywhere fast.” 

Sano turned to glare at Saito –the recognition finally kicked in –but stopped short when he saw the squinty eyed bastard. He was in some kind of uniform, but it wasn’t the police one. Old memories he never knew he had dredged themselves up, labelling the clothes as Shinsengumi before fading to the background. 

He had longer hair (much, much longer), and the stress marks weren’t so deep. His clothes were ripped and splattered with blood and gore, not all of it his own, but clearly it wasn’t fully belonging to others. Some of the injuries looked about the same as the ones he’d had in the fight with the crispy bastard; others, Sano had no idea how they’d come into existence and one or two were borderline fatal. Despite this, the man looked ten years younger. He felt Saito’s killing intent begin to spark, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. 

“You look like shit.” 

Cold amber eyes raked him from top to toe. A slim black eyebrow inched towards the Wolf’s hairline. Sano held his own, determined not to be cowed. 

5 seconds…  
10 seconds…  
15…  
20… 

He huffed, averting his eyes. Never let it be said that he didn’t have any self preservation instincts. 

[Kenshin]  
Kenshin felt two familiar swordsmen’s spirits drawing closer. They were faint enough to barely brush against his heighted sensing abilities; anyone who hadn’t studied the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu wouldn’t be able to pick them up. Blood, darkness; steel and fire and night time. So, Saito was close. But had he travelled back like him, or was it the Wolf who still prowled through the Bakamatsu? Sunshine, grass, lightning, sake and…tears. Saito was with Sano?! Well then, I guess that means it’s my Saito and not the one that’ll gut me on sight, Kenshin mused. Curious, he left his room, ambling down the stairs and ignoring the looks the others were giving him as he headed to the back entrance. 

During the day he had always secluded himself in his room, occasionally coming down for a meal but otherwise basically not existing to them unless he was on a mission. The redhead supposed it was only natural for them to be wary. He took one look out the door before throwing it, as well as caution, to the wind. The Wolf looked terrible; covered in as much blood as he was whilst leaning heavily on the man next to him, he could hardly look anything else. Underneath the red his skin was white, and Sano wasn’t much better. His mind fell straight into battle mode. They were allies, and they were incapacitated. The alley wasn’t easily defensible; the inn was. Before the duo could muster the energy to argue, they had been hustled through the door and into the main room. 

There were cries as Ishin Shishi left and right rose, scrambling for their weapons. Suddenly Kenshin was in front of them, his killing intent washing over them all and freezing them in place. Very slowly he slid into the stance for battojutsu. The message couldn’t have been clearer if he had painted ‘back off’ in their own blood across every wall in Kyoto. He didn’t move until every weapon was sheathed and put away, and even then it was only a sharp gesture to sit before he disappeared in search of the medical kit. 

In the redhead’s absence, the brunette and the Wolf shared an amused glance.

If Kenshin had been any less than the swordsman he was, his tendency to mother hen his allies would have gotten them killed by now.

**Author's Note:**

> Next Time:  
> Sano gets annoyed at Kenshin, Saito gets annoyed at Kenshin, the Ishin Shishi get annoyed at Kenshin, and the Shinsengumi are always annoyed when it comes to Kenshin. Kami save him from the wrath of his shishou, though. 
> 
> So yeah, everyone's annoyed at Kenshin. And maybe someone else came back too. 
> 
> Once they beat Kenshin around enough they'll probably make a plan of attack idk man everyone's just really made at Kenshin.
> 
> Kudos would be lovely, don't forget if you want to read when (if?) [when!] I update, bookmarking is a good idea *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* I hope you have fun
> 
> A/N--Ok, its been years, I have lost all motivation, and have also forgotten what the hell I was planning for this. I'll be leaving this as a oneshot, and it can be read as such, but I'm officially labelling it discontinued. I'm sorry if this disappointed anyone who has been waiting for an update since 2014 (who are you? where are these strange people?), but I've got no motivation to continue, and I just wasn't comfortable with leaving you all hanging on a chapter count of 1/?. I figured I might as well give you guys closure, and after a quick skim through decided it could stand alone from where I left it. I'm not really one for adoption, but I'm not entirely opposed to it. So, unless someone makes an extremely impassioned and persuasive argument, this fic will be staying as is and with me. Thanks for your consideration. 
> 
> Also, my writing from two years back is cringe. Just, no.
> 
> Cheers, Aurelyn


End file.
